Welcome to Frugal Living NW!

I'm Angela Davis, a PNW native, mom of lots of kids, and I love saving money. I'm here to help you live well on a budget by making every penny count. You'll find deals at your local stores, ways to save online, recipes, and frugal living tips and inspiration.

Most of these deals use a Safeway double coupon, which is available at Oregon & SW Washington (Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Clark, Skamania & Klickitat Counties) Safeways only. You can double up to 4 manufacturer’s coupons per transaction, up to $.50 each. The double coupon is found in the weekly ad at the bottom of the middle page.

The man working the self checkout at 39th (Cesar Chavez) and Powell is really supportive of couponing. I just paid 28 cents for 2 bottles of Wishbone dressing and 2 Zone bars. He only took 45-cents off each Zone bar for the double because he said “They don’t want us to pay you to ‘buy’ the product.”

Just got back from Safeway…..saved $37.00 in coupons…..which for the month will fill my car with gas, so I am very happy. Thanks for the coupon tips.

But one thing for people to know….the safeway ad has BOGO for lawry’s marinade, bb-q sauce and ketchup (and of course, I had additional coupons to put on those items!). However, the register didn’t give me one for free. Went to customer service for a refund. The were super nice about it. Reminds me to ALWAYS check my receipts!

I guess I am blessed to rarely encounter issues with coupons. I have had cashiers make snide remarks about how low my total is but hey I work hard to save that money so I should be rewarded witha low total. I play by the game and don’t try to pull any fast BS.

I do make sure when I’m dealing with insanely low prices that I pad my order with produce, milk, something to jack it up a bit. And who is helpful varies day to day – one day someone expereienced, the next day someone new.

I have read, and now carry, the Safeway coupon policy from there website. Here is my question. Starting tomorrow they have a 4 day sale with Oscar Meyer hot dogs for $.99 and I have the $1/2 coupon. According to the policy they will not accept any coupon for more than 50% of the products value. Should I be concerned about using these coupons? I’m new to this so please pardon my ignorance.

I have recently had two very different experiences with this-so it appears to vary depending who you talk to: I asked a manager about this & she said it was on the regular price-not the sale price.
So I thought I knew what I was doing -went to another store & was surprised when the manager there told me it is on the sale price . It was specifically on the hotdogs also-which really isn’t even .01 over 50 %!
To be on the safe side-I would ask at customer service when I go it-before I buy-they may need to call a manager as they may not know either. Of course two different managers, may also give two different answers!

Another great deal is the 100 calorie cheese packs, priced 2.49. If you go to Kraft First Taste they have a coupon there for 1.50 off and then combined with the Safeway ecoupon of $1 off it makes it free.

So I went to Safeway today to get the tide stain release… the one I wanted was actually price reduced for quick sale to 5.99 (26oz powder), so I didn’t need the weekly coupon, but when I went to pay for it, the ecoupon didn’t come off. Does anyone know why? I came home and double checked that it was on my card and it was still there, and it was the right size and everything…

I’ve found that with Safeway the P&G ecoupons are sporadic coming off when I enter my phone number but come off every time that I use the actual Safeway club card. I don’t know what the difference is, but I recommend always having your card swiped when you’re looking to use P&G ecoupons. The cellfire and shortcut seem to work pretty consistently either way. HTH!

What is it that makes cashiers act as though your savings are coming out of their paychecks? I understand and respect following store policy, but there is a cashier in the Powell and 181st Safeway who routinely won’t accept some of my coupons simply because I “would get the item too cheap.” And I’m not talking about internet printables. Sheeeeesh.

I am an avid couponer, but also a cashier, so I see both sides of most of us couponers scenarios. Even though our savings are not coming out of a cashiers pockets, most cashiers are very cautious because the smallest mistake can get us fired. Sooooo, that being said, I think a lot of cashiers probably get scared/nervous when us couponers walk out for nearly free. The thought running thru their heads is “what did I just do wrong”. For someone like myself, I know my store and I know coupons, so I don’t freak out at a handful of coupons. Just my humble opinion.

I think you are right-I notice that many cashiers & even the one above who was a manager, don’t know a lot about coupons-I think you have to be doing it on the side & read blogs like this to really learn about it.
It would be helpful for the stores to do more education in this area for their cashiers & probably even some managers!! Also the people in customer service. I had one lady tell me on a Safeway mix & match deal-where you bought 5 & got $5 off that it had to all be in the same category-I said but it says mix & match-but she didn’t budge. come to find out one of my items didn’t get scanned (which was a fluke-that never happens)-I had to figure it out. She does look at me suspiciously now.

I got the smack down when I tried to do the Ovaltine deal, but it was my own fault, I needed to pad my order with some produce or something. My total went down to $2.19 and then he wouldn’t take my $2 coupon. He wouldn’t have blinked if I’d had extra groceries in my order. I had to go back to get the right hot dogs (had picked up the fancy angus ones by mistake), and when I came back he took off the doublers (the OM coupons and Tide) (yes, he gave me the doubler even though it says no internet coupon doubling), and that put me in the negative. He adjusted the doubler coupon so I paid nothing, and I said laughing “I guess I’m not your friend today, am I?” He growled at me, “no you’re not. have a nice day”. Ah well. Thanks for the free Tide and dogs mister.

Did the Ovaltine deal and Tide with another card, strawberries, and another 4 packages of OM dogs at the Sunnyside store, $5.19 oop. The head cashier smiled nicely and said “good job on your savings today!”. So nice!

ps…they had the premium dogs there, no nitrates, sulfites, whatever, they were the same price and worked with the in-ad coupon. Just getting these for the teenagers next door, personally hot dogs make me ill. 🙂

Well I had quite an experience at Safeway today. Went to the one down the road (Hillsboro one-or Aloha by Rite Aid) as I was that way & wanted to spread around my bargain shopping! Well I learned my lesson & will stick to the Sunset Esplanade one I always go to.
Similar to Christy above -an unexpected interpretation happened that never has happened to me before at Safeway: the cashier wouldn’t use my coupons that were more than 50% of the SALE price-I replied that was on the regular price & he said he didn’t interpret it that way-was a manager too, so I just had him put it back. Happened on two items-and I hate holding up people behind me! When I got home I discovered that actually most of my purchases fell in that category & he missed most of them!! So that helped a bit.
But also my catalina’s for the ziploc containers didn’t print out:-( He said that probably just ended-I said actually it just started. It is frustrating when you know more than they do.
I do have the number to call, so know how to check on that. Has anyone gotten them yet-there was a sign up by the items-of course just by one size, but I’ve found that often happens & doesn’t usually mean anything. Does anyone know is it on all sizes?
One consoling point-they had lots of May coupon books left which have a $2 Complete contact solution coupon-which at Walgreens gives you the full $8 RR back on-so a $2 money maker!!! I stopped at one on the way home & bought it to cheer myself up!!

I specifically asked at the Esplanade store-had to go up to the manager as no one was quite sure-(one checker did say only one). She was a younger lady (& I could tell not hostile to coupons-believe she uses them also) & she corrected that-it is 2 per type of product (which I agreed made sense, as you can usually print out two per offer). She also said that you can have one coupon per item purchased.
I live very close to that one, so shop there several times a week & haven’t had any problems. I would try them again.

I just came back from Safeway and was told (and shown) that on the “Double Coupon” coupon that is in their ad , says does not apply to internet coupons. Has that always been there or is this something new?

It’s a few months old. Neither the Gladstone store or the Milwaukie one on McLoughlin will double printables. Esp. since it says right on it that you cannot use the double coupon on internet coupons. I don’t even try now because I feel it’s kind of like using a coupon on a product other than what it was intended it was for just because it will scan. It’s kind of in that gray area.

My safeway didn’t let me do 2 transactions in a row today when I went there on my lunch to do the Ziploc deal. They said corporate was enforcing the “one per household per shopping trip.” Grrrrrrrr! It really depends on the cashier, mine was an older lady whom I’ve never had a problem with but it is sort of frustrating!

I was told that last week after I had even gone to the car. I rarely go to safeway any more but wanted to do two quick transactions. I had purposely gotten in the same line so I didn’t look like I was pulling anything, but they switched cashiers while I was waiting and the new cashier actually said “didn’t you just come through” and I said yep I had gone out to my car and come back to do the deal again. She stated that she couldn’t use the doublers and her manager considered that the same shopping trip. I said that usually it was ok if I left the store and that obviously I was hoping to use all my coupons and that if I couldn’t I would just not get the items, as I could drive to a different location or come back the next day for a better price. I was polite and said I didn’t want to get her in trouble, but would cancel the transaction at which point she said she’d just do it since she’d already taken my manufacturers coupons but she wanted me to know their store’s new policy (tanasbourne). I find safeway is really inconsistent and hate being embarassed like this. Of course a line formed while we were talking and I felt really stupid. Trying to decide if any of this week’s deals are worth the possible harassment.

Thanks for the heads up-I had another trying experience today- (see it further down here)-and want to avoid as many as possible!
The inconsistency is frustrating-also I find after reading these blogs, we usually know more about what is going on than they do-but they are the ones that interpret it!!

Most of these deals use a Safeway double coupon, which is available at Oregon & SW Washington (Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Clark, Skamania & Klickitat Counties) Safeways only. You can double up to 4 manufacturer’s coupons per transaction, up to $.50 each. The double coupon is found in the weekly ad at the bottom of the middle page.

Kim, your mileage may vary on the $10 prerequisite. If you go to a young guy, it will probably be after coupons. If you go to a grouchy lady, she will insist on before coupons. They do not have a firm policy on this. Drives me crazy!!

You should be able to do back to back transactions using doublers each time, however make sure you don’t try it when there are a bunch of people behind you. I usually just go around. You MIGHT have to go back at a different time. Take the groceries out to the car and go back in!

My Safeway in Baker City Oregon won’t accept any printed coupons. I asked the checker if this was a corporate policy and she said yes. Does anyone know if this is true or is this a store by store decision?

Safeway takes printed manufacture’s coupon with limitations. You can see more here:http://www.safeway.com/ifl/grocery/Coupons-Policy
However their new policy is that they DO NOT double printable/internet coupons. It states this directly on the Safeway double coupon.

I specifically asked at my store-neither the cashiers or customer service person knew accurately, but when I got up to the manager-she said (and I have read the policy which says this too)-they do take printed coupons, up to 2 for each type of item (so you could use two if you bought two of an item-still only one per item purchased). Which makes sense as you generally can print out two coupons per item.